Canals at Kapolei and Sand Island carry PFAS to the Ocean in Oahu, Hawaii

Hawaii looks the other way

By Pat Elder
May 13, 2022

This canal, adjacent to petroleum storage tanks in Kapolei, carries
carcinogenic foam to Mamala Bay on the Pacific Ocean.

A water sample we collected from  Kapolei, Hawaii contained 119.9 parts per trillion (ppt) of total PFAS, including 29.5 ppt of PFOS. It was collected on  3/26/22 at 11:00 am at the canal near Barbers Point where it intersects with Cruz Road near Pearl Harbor National Wildlife Refuge in Kapolei, Hawaii. 

This is the location of the sample we took from the canal draining carcinogens into the ocean from Kapolei.

Par Hawaii is believed to be the owner of the petroleum storage tanks shown here. On Oahu, pipelines from the Kapolei refinery feed terminals at Honolulu International Airport, Honolulu Harbor and military installations. Pipelines also deliver products to Kalaeloa Barbers Point Harbor, where they are transferred to ships and barges that supply the Neighbor Islands.

We don’t know if Par Hawaii is responsible for the levels of PFAS in surface waters. We don’t know who is responsible, but the activity that is causing it must cease and the perpetrators ought to be held responsible.  

Sand Island

The levels we found on Sand Island were nearly identical to the concentrations we found in Kapolei. Here, we discovered 117.1 parts per trillion (ppt) of total PFAS with 36.4 ppt of  PFOS in a canal draining into the ocean near Honolulu's Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. The service area for the existing Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant includes the U.S. Army facilities at Fort Shafter and Tripler Army Medical Center. The sample was collected on January 5, 2022 at 6:00 pm.

The red pin shows the location of our sampling at Sand Island. We weren’t able to access areas south the treatment plant. The state of Hawaii has work to do.

Sign on Sand Island near the wastewater treatment plant.

We were hampered by our access to military, industrial, and municipal sources of contamination on Oahu. Barbed wire and armed guards greet environmental activists seeking water samples. We sampled Halawa Stream two miles from Red Hill. When we’ve gotten closer to the sources of contamination in other states, we’ve been able to document much higher levels of PFAS contamination in surface waters:

JB Charleston, SC - 2,997.6 ppt 
Fort George G. Meade’s wastewater treatment plant, MD -  2,306.2 ppt
Naval Research Laboratory - Chesapeake Bay Detachment MD -  6,058 ppt
JB Andrews, MD -  2,781.8 ppt
Former Plattsburgh AFB, NY - 7,941.7 ppt

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State toxicologist Diana Felton told Honolulu’s Civil Beat, that the state is focused on areas where PFAS may be concentrated, including military bases, airports, landfills, and wastewater treatment plants. Perhaps this is the case, although the state has not been forthcoming with analytical results of PFAS in surface water, drinking water, and aquatic life. Neither has the military. Meanwhile, the mainstream press has been largely ignoring the story of PFAS contamination. 

The Hawaii Department of Health is behind the times on PFAS. Their website reports, “While there are thousands of PFASs, only a relatively small number are considered to pose a significant risk to human health and the environment.”

This is a dangerous and cavalier attitude. Public health officials across the country recognize the dangers posed by these chemicals as a class. Environmental Working Group is very clear in this regard.  “Managing PFAS as a class is a critical step in addressing the PFAS crisis, along with eliminating non-essential uses. Reducing the unnecessary use of PFAS breaks the cycle of ongoing contamination. Lawmakers should prioritize quickly phasing out these unnecessary uses of PFAS.”

Civil Beat reported on our earlier findings, “The detections at each location were in the parts per trillion, which Felton said represent a fraction of a single drop within an Olympic swimming pool.  But Elder said it only takes a small amount of PFAS to bioaccumulate in the environment, having a magnifying effect each time it moves up the food chain.” 

It’s “Breaking News” in Hawaii.

Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii - Mamala Bay is contaminated with PFAS from Kapolei, (red dot) and Sand Island, (brown dot).

Kapolei had 119.9 ppt of total PFAS, including 29.5 ppt of PFOS, while Sand Island had 117.1 ppt of total PFAS with 36.4 ppt of  PFOS.  All of it is heading into the ocean. All of the PFAS compounds escaping into the environment, even at levels of 1 ppt are toxic, but we’ll just examine Perfluoro Octane Sulfonate (PFOS) here.

PFOS is regarded as a priority hazardous substance under the European Union’s Water Framework Directive  EU, 2013, with an Environmental Quality Standard value of 0.65 ppt in inland surface waters and .13 ppt in seawater. The Europeans are taking thiis more seriously than the Hawaiians. The European Food Safety Authority  (EFSA) says up to 86% of the PFAS in our bodies is from the food we eat - especially seafood from contaminated waters. The EU also points to a correlation between various PFAS levels in our bodies and poor COVID outcomes. 

The water we found draining into the ocean at Kapolei is 227 times over the European threshold while the poisoned water flowing from Sand Island is 280 times over the EU limit. Hawaiians I’ve spoken to seem awestruck at the notion that PFOS in parts per trillion could harm human health. One part per trillion is the same concentration as one drop of water in 20 Olympic-sized pools, while leading health professionals say consuming 1 ppt in drinking water daily may be hazardous to our health. PFAS is bad news.

Hawaii, PFAS is bad news!

 Although Hawaii looks the other way, Minnesota limits PFOS in some waterbodies at .05 parts per trillion. The land of 10,000 lakes is very concerned with the potential for the bioaccumulation of PFOS in fish tissue.  

According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency,  “Concentrations of PFOS can be more than 7,000 times higher in fish tissue than the surrounding water, so where a waterbody is used for harvesting fish and as a source of drinking water, eating fish can be a larger source of exposure because the PFOS concentrates so highly in fish tissue.”

Imagine if a group of Minnesota environmental bureaucrats seized control of Hawaii’s environmental enforcement apparatus.  They might protect human health!

The seafood is making us sick

Fish caught near military and industrial sites may contain millions of parts per trillion of PFOS, while the EPA, always on the sidelines, has a non-mandatory drinking water advisory of 70 ppt. 

Minnesota says fish may contain PFOS concentrations that are 7,000 times greater than ambient water levels of PFOS.  If this is the case, the filet of fish from Mamala Bay are likely to contain tens, or even hundreds of thousands of parts per trillion of the carcinogens. The shellfish are also contaminated. It’s chilling.

Wisconsin has adopted a surface water standard for PFOS at 8 parts per trillion. Still, scientists say these limits are too high.

Michigan has adopted a surface water standard for PFOS at 11 parts per trillion. The Wolverine State tested 2,000 fish and found the average fish contains 80,000 ppt of PFOS alone.

How much PFAS are in the seafood served at those fancy restaurants on Waikiki Beach? Apparently, the state doesn’t want to know, or they don’t want us to know.

The military is hiding the truth about PFAS contamination
on Oahu while the state is complacent

There have only been two “preliminary assessments” released by the DOD for installations on Oahu.  A preliminary assessment is a cursory report that kind of kicks the tires, interviews a few folks, and reports on the possibility of aqueous film-form foam (AFFF) use and/or PFAS contamination on a facility. A site inspection, on the other hand, can be an extraordinarily compelling document because it includes analytical results from a variety of media, including soil, subsurface soil, groundwater, surface water, and sediment.  There has not been a single site inspection report on PFAS released by the DOD for an installation in Hawaii. The state is among the most secretive nationally in this regard.

Check out the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command’s (NAVFAC) page on Hawaii and then click on other states. Hawaiians must demand greater transparency.

Bellows Air Force Base in Waimānalo also provides an example of a lack of transparency. The Final Preliminary Assessment of Aqueous Film-Forming Foam Areas Bellows Air Force Station in November, 2017 reported, “Based on the results of the records review, aerial photograph review, and site visit, there are no active or inactive fire training areas within the boundary of the current Bellows AFS (Wright, 2017). Furthermore, the runways at Bellows AFS were closed in 1958, terminating its status as a flying field. Because of the runway closure, it is unlikely that fire training activities occurred at Bellows AFS after 1970.”

Case closed? Although the military is responsible for millions of gallons of carcinogenic PFAS-laced firefighting foams contaminating the environment across the country, they may not have used them at Bellows. That’s not to say the base is PFAS-free. The compounds are used in a host of military and industrial applications, like wire coating and chrome plating. We tested Waimanalo stream along Bellows Airforce Base and found a total of 57.4 ppt of PFAS heading toward the ocean. Something must account for the levels we found.

The Hawaii Department of Health finally got around to reviewing the Bellows Preliminary Assessment report on January 5, 2022. It took them almost five years. Most of the time states respond to these things in a few weeks, but few have been paying attention in Hawaii. The Health Department says it has “no comment” on the Air Force’s assessment. This amounts to a rubber stamp of approval. It’s not good enough. Hawaii must do more to protect human health from PFAS.

Results of our testing at 20 locations in Hawaii

Sample 1 Sand Island - Waste Water Treatment  Plant effluent - Honolulu, HI 1/5/2022 at 6:00 pm  Dropped pin  We detected 10 PFAS in the #831 unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 117.1 ppt: PFOA - 12.4 ppt; PFOS - 36.4 ppt; PFBA - 8.1 ppt; PFBS - 5.3 ppt; PFHxA - 12.1 ppt; PFHxS- 21.1 ppt; PFHpA - 3.8 ppt; PFPeA - 7.1 ppt; PFPeS - 2.1 ppt; and PFDS - 8.7 ppt. The other 44 PFAS tested for measured non-detect. Our limit of quantification is 1-2 ppt for all PFAS

Holly Elder collects a water sample from Halawa Stream.

 Sample 2  N. Halawa Stream under Halawa Valley St, Aiea, HI - 1/3/2022  at 5:00 pm  21°22'16.4"N 157°54'50.3"W  We detected 5 PFAS in the #832 unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 17.1 ppt: PFOS - 9.0 ppt; PFDA - 1.2 ppt; PFDoA - 1.7 ppt; PFUnA - 1.7 ppt; and 6:2 FTS - 3.5 ppt.

Sample 3 Halawa Stream by Aloha Stadium 1/3/2022 6:00 pm  21°22'08.3"N 157°55'48.1"W  (11.9 ppt total PFAS; 1.6 PFOS)  We detected 3 PFAS in the #833 unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 11.9 ppt: PFOS - 1.6 ppt; PFHxA - 1.0 ppt; and 6:2diPAP - 9.3 ppt. The other 51 PFAS tested for measured non-detect. Our limit of quantification is 1-2 ppt for all PFAS.

Sample 4  Stream by Ke Ehi Lagoon Park  - North of the Highways near 2669 Kilihua St. 21.33522. -157.89425 We detected 5 PFAS in the #837 unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 12.7 ppt: PFOA - 1.5 ppt; PFOS - 4.8 ppt; PFBS - 1.3 ppt; PFHxA - 2.4 ppt; and PFHxS - 2.7  ppt. The other 49 PFAS tested for measured non-detect.  Our limit of quantification is 1-2 ppt for all PFAS.

Sample 5 Wai Kai Lagoon, Ewa Beach - 1/17/2022 11:30 am -   We detected 10 PFAS in this unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 44.7 ppt: PFOA - 2.4 ppt; PFOS - 3.4 ppt; PFBA - 1.2 ppt; PFBS - 22.0 ppt; PFHxA - 3.4 ppt; PFHxS- 4.0 ppt; PFHpA - 1.6 ppt; PFPeA - 2.0 ppt; FHEA - 1.6 ppt; and 6:2diPAP - 3.1 ppt. 

Sample 6 Kawai Nui Marsh Kailua - 1/18/2022 2:30 pm We detected 5 PFAS in this unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 7.6 ppt: PFOA - 1.5 ppt; PFOS - 1.5 ppt; PFBA - 1.2 ppt; PFHxA - 1.1 ppt; and FHEA - 2.3 ppt. The other 49 PFAS tested for measured non-detect. 

Sample 7 Wahiawa This unfiltered water sample came back “clean." All of the 54 PFAS tested measured non-detect. 8. Wahiawa, HI  - Route 80 under the bridge crossing the stream, coming from the North Shore - 1/21/2022 at 4:30 pm

Sample  8 Wahiawa  1/21/2022 at 5:00pm 159 Lakeview Circle, Wahiawa, HI -

We detected 1 PFAS in this unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 1.1 ppt: PFOS - 1.1 ppt. The other 53 PFAS tested for measured non-detect.  

Sample 9 Moanalua Valley Trail Stream  Moanalua, Honolulu, HI 1/22/2022 at 12 pm This unfiltered water sample came back “clean." All of the 54 PFAS tested measured non-detect. 

Sample 10 -  Kapolei - Canal next to Barbers Point Park, Kapolei, HI Oahu 1/17/2022 at 10:50 am  This unfiltered water sample came back “clean." All of the 54 PFAS tested measured non-detect- 21.296185471434832, 158.1036190980584 

Sample 11 - Canal in front of Nico’s Pier 38  Honolulu HI 96817 - 2/9/22 @ 1:30 pm  We only detected 1 PFAS in this unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 2.0 ppt: PFNA - 2.0 ppt. The other 54 PFAS tested for measured non-detect.

Sample 12 -  Wawamalu Beach Park . Honolulu, HI 96825 near Hawaii Kai-sprinkler system watering the grass. 2/1/22 6:30 pm  This unfiltered water sample came back “clean." All of the 55 PFAS tested measured non-detect.

Sample 13 -  Salt Lake District Park  Lake adjacent to Salt Lake District Park Honolulu HI 96818 on 2/9/22 @ 2:45 pm 21°21'09.2"N 157°54'35.1"W We detected 8 PFAS in this unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 48.1 ppt: PFOA - 1.4 ppt; PFOS - 29.8 ppt; PFBS - 4.0 ppt; PFDA - 2.0 ppt; PFHxA - 1.8 ppt; PFHxS - 4.7 ppt; PFNA - 1.5 ppt; and FHUEA - 2.9 ppt. The other 47 PFAS measured non-detect.

Sample 14 - Waimanalo Stream along Bellows Airforce Base 96795 on 2/5/22 @ 4:30 pm  21°20'48.9"N 157°42'38.8"W   We detected 9 PFAS in this unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 57.4 ppt:  PFOA - 4.5 ppt; PFOS - 8.7 ppt; PFBA - 2.1 ppt; PFBS - 8.1 ppt; PFHxA - 7.1 ppt; PFHxS - 16.8 ppt; PFHpA - 1.9 ppt; PFPeA - 4.9 ppt; and PFPeS - 3.3 ppt. The other 47 PFAS measured non-detect.

Sample 15 -  Ocean water close to  La Marina Sailing Club Honolulu HI 96819 on 2/9/22 @ 1:40 pm  21°19'21.7"N 157°53'36.1"W This unfiltered water sample came back “clean." All of the 55 PFAS tested measured non-detect.

Sample 16 -  Ahuimanu Stream Kahaluu HI 96744 on 2/9/22 @ 4 pm 47-528 Kamehameha Hwy. We detected 1 PFAS in this unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 1.2 ppt:  PFOS - 1.2 ppt. The other 54 PFAS tested for measured non-detect.

Sample 17 -  Canal near Barber’s Point where it intersects with Cruz Road near Pearl Harbor National Wildlife Refuge in Kapolei HI  3/26/22 - 11 am - 21°18'00.3"N 158°05'12.7"W We detected 12 PFAS in this unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 119.9 ppt: PFOA - 7.2; PFOS - 29.5; PFBA - 2.7; PFBS - 3.9; PFHpA - 9.2; PFHxA - 11.4; PFHxS - 42.7; PFNA - 1.3; PFPeA - 7.5; FHxSA - 1; PFPeS - 2.5; PFHpS - 1.

Sample 18 - Surface pond near Barbers Point -  3/29/22 5:00 pm 21°18'13.0"N 157°53'05.3"W  detected 2 PFAS in this unfiltered water sample, with a total concentration of 3.4 ppt. PFOS - 1.2; FOUEA - 1 ppt.

Sample 19 - Assembly of God Church women's bathroom sink 3400 Moanalua Road Honolulu HI 96819   4/10/22 @ 12 pm We detected 2 PFAS in this filtered water sample, with a total concentration of  1.2 ppt:  PFPeA - 1.2.

Sample 20 -  Aliamanu Community Center women’s bathroom sink 1780 Bougainville Loop Honolulu 96818 4/10/22  @ 12:30 pm. We detected 1 PFAS compound containing 1 ppt: FOUEA - 1 ppt.